Art & Gentrification Archive

Shelterforce

Resource Overview

The relationship between arts activity and urban gentrification and displacement is perhaps one of the most visible and most deliberated topics in cultural planning, due in no small part to how nuanced and complicated the relationship can be. The community development journal Shelterforce has been a hub for this conversation, having published many articles that address this nuanced topic. Keli A. Tianga’s 2017 article “Art in the Face of Gentrification” illustrates how certain art and cultural activities or activities by practitioners without ties to the community can be perceived as aligning with or accelerating displacement in gentrifying neighborhoods, and also how – seemingly paradoxically – artistic and cultural visibility and strength may be one of the most powerful tools for low-income communities of color fighting to stay in place.